Mama Lioness
by boredsvunut
Summary: George has put his child in danger, and Alanna brings him to task for it. This is why interfering with the Lioness's cubs is a bad, bad, idea.


"You _what?_" Alanna seethed, her voice rising in her anger. "George, you – how could you even _think_ of that? _How?_"

_Maude warned me I'd pay_, George thought ruefully. "Alanna, I didn't mean for her to come to any harm. It went bad fast, and I couldn't get her away."

His wife glared at him, her eyes flashing, and her face flushed with rage. "As if it isn't bad enough with _you_ in such work, no, you have to introduce Aly to it. She's your _daughter_, George Cooper! _Not_ one of your agents, not a spy, not a codebreaker – _none of it!_" Alanna slammed her hand down on the desk for emphasis and stormed from the study, slamming the heavy door behind her.

It did no good to talk to his lass when she was in a temper – she didn't – couldn't – listen. If she did, he would have told her that he felt the same fear she did, the same worry when Aly showed an aptitude for spy's work, and, unfortunately, an interest in it. She was too clever, their only girl, and if he let her, she talked of nothing else but codes and intelligence reports.

They'd returned home from that disastrous meeting in Port Caynn, only to find Alanna also at home. She, in a fit of mothering instincts, had demanded to know what was wrong with Aly. When they told her, her temper had risen – quickly.

He'd reluctantly agreed to take Aly to a series of meetings with some Marenite agents, against his better judgment. He'd never known that the men had hostile intentions. There'd been no word of anything of the like from his own people. Aly had only followed him about and nagged him for almost a year, and it was supposed to be harmless.

How had he been to know that his daughter would end up in her first real knife-fight, and would end up having to kill a man? _You got comfortable_, whispered a voice in the back of his head, and George sighed. He had. Aly would never join him again, and not because of her mother's famous temper. He wouldn't willingly take his child anywhere where she could easily be killed or captured.

A knock sounded on the door and old Maude entered, with her arm around an exhausted, but freshly-bathed Aly.

"Where's the lady?" George asked, not looking at the housekeeper, but at his daughter.

"Gone for a ride on the beach, as I understand it," Maude responded, "and in the foulest temper she's been in in a while."

George shrugged. "She'll settle, if I'm fortunate. You know as well as I that it does no good talking to her now."

"You'd be right there, baron." Maude nodded her agreement. "I leave the young miss here with you, for now."

Alanna wouldn't understand if he explained the secret plainly: He loved and cared for the children as much as she did, and he worried about Aly, too-clever-for-her-own-good and drawn to his way of life. She'd been born in his likeness, down to her eyes, even and it frightened him. He just didn't react like Mama Lioness did.

"Da?" Aly peered up at him from her place huddled in the corner of the sofa, after Maude left the room. "Mother was angry, wasn't she?"

What _George_ didn't understand was the strange relationship between Aly and Alanna, but that was probably another secret all together. "Not with you, lass – with me." He rose from behind his desk and settled himself next to his daughter. "She doesn't like me livin' a life of secrets and lies, never mind the thought of you doing the same."

Aly rolled her eyes. "Da…" she whined.

"And she's right, Aly. I was born to this: it's all I know. My people've been living crooked lives all their lives. Not you, lass."

She frowned at him. "But, Da…" she began.

"No, Aly. I won't put you in harm's way deliberately, again. It puts you, me, and everyone I work with at risk. Not again – an' it isn't just because of your mother's temper."

His daughter's mouth settled into a determined line and George worried if telling her 'no' had been the best idea. Aly was stubborn, like her mother; she got what she wanted, or she'd know why. And he privately wondered, in a very small corner of his mind, if he'd just deprived the realm of a brilliant young spy.


End file.
